The geographical knowledge of the mountain man Jedediah Smith (1799–1831) is recorded by George Gibbs on this map. Smith’s explorations played a significant role in the settlement of the American West. Smith was the first white man to cross the future states of Nevada and Utah, the first American to enter California by the overland route, and the first American to explore the Pacific coast from California to the banks of the Columbia River. Gibbs’s annotations, based on a manuscript map by Smith, detail such matters as ...